MicroStripes 7.

5 Getting Started Tutorial

TUTORIAL 1: GETTING STARTED

This tutorial introduces MicroStripes 7.5. By following the step by step

guide below, you will walk through the key features of the product and
learn a typical modeling process. You will:
• Create a new project and build a model.
• Analyze the model.
• Display various types of results for the model.

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MicroStripes 7.5 Getting Started Tutorial

Launch MicroStripes 7.5 from the Start menu,

or by clicking on the MicroStripes 7.5 desktop
icon.
Every time you start MicroStripes, the Starting
MicroStripes dialog is displayed. This dialog
helps you create a new project or open a
recently used project.
We will create a new project, so click on the
New project… button.

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The New Project dialog opens. We will call the

new project ‘Getting Started’, so type this in the
Name area.
By default, the project location will be in the
user’s My Documents\MicroStripes Projects
directory. You can change project location by
using the Browse… button.
We are going to create a new model for this
project. Check the Create new SAT file box and
in the File Name area type in ‘cavity’. SAT is the
name of the file format used to store models.
Click on OK to create the project and to close
the New Project dialog.

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MicroStripes 7.5 Getting Started Tutorial

Since we created a new project with an empty

model, the MicroStripes 7.5 Build window
automatically opens. Build is an interactive
CAD modeler that is used to create and edit
geometric and electromagnetic properties of
the model.
The Build window has a main drawing area for
displaying the model, a menu bar for
performing various tasks, and a set of toolbars
for quick access to specific operations.
You can move the toolbars around to create a
different look and feel. To move a Build
toolbar, click on any part of the toolbar around
the icons, and drag the toolbar to your
preferred position. Toolbars can be positioned
at the top or to either side of Build.

Click on in the View toolbar to toggle

between black and white background; or
choose Options>Background Color… from the
main menu and select any other color.

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MicroStripes 7.5 Getting Started Tutorial

The cavity geometry consists of a hollow metal

box. We will create it using solid blocks
primitives and a simple Boolean operation.
Generally, a solid shape can be created by
selecting it from the Create>Solids menu, or by
clicking on an icon in the Solids toolbar
(identified by its red icons).

Click on the Block icon in the Solids

toolbar. The Create block dialog will open.
Type ‘cavity’ in the Name box. Set the Corner
Point to (-2, -2, -2), and the dimensions of the
block to (24, 14, 20). You can use the <Tab>
key to quickly move through the edit boxes.
Click the Create button.
Now create a second, smaller block, using the
same dialog. Change name to ‘cutout’ and
choose a different color by clicking on the
colored rectangle next to the name.
Set the Corner Point to (0, 0, 0) and the
dimensions to (20, 10, 16).
Click the Create button followed by Close.

Click twice on the Mode icon in the View

toolbar to change the image rendering to the
“wireframe” display.
Use the mouse wheel to make the model larger
on the screen. Press the left mouse button and
move the mouse to rotate the view.

Click on the Zoom All icon in the View

toolbar to reset the view so that the image of
the model is contained within the drawing area.

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Our model now contains two solid blocks, one

inside the other. In order to create a hollow
cavity, we will use a Boolean operation to cut
the small block out of the larger block.

Click on the Booleans icon in the

Operations toolbar. The Boolean operations
dialog opens.
For the Workpiece select the item ‘cavity’.
For the Operation, choose ‘Subtract’.
For the Tool select ‘cutout’.
You do not need to keep the ‘cutout’ block after
this operation, so leave Keep tool unchecked.
Click Apply and then Close to exit the Boolean
operations dialog.
As in the previous step, use the mouse wheel
and mouse buttons to manipulate the view of
the model.
Note that by pressing the mouse wheel you can
drag the view from side to side or up and
down.

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MicroStripes 7.5 Getting Started Tutorial

The geometry definition for this model is

complete. The next step is to set the
electromagnetic properties of the model. This
can be achieved using the EM Properties menu
or icons in the EM Properties toolbar. In this
tutorial we will use the icons.

Click on to open the Model Parameters

dialog.
For the Data ID type ‘resonant cavity’. This is
effectively a title that will be used in the result
plots.
Leave the Units as mm.
Set Maximum frequency to 30 GHz. The
minimum and maximum frequencies are used
to calculate the default mesh size and to set
default range for plotting results.
Leave the Duration as 480 mm. This
determines the amount of real time that the
model will be analyzed for and defaults to 20
times the size of the model. The solver will run
for the time necessary for an electromagnetic
signal to travel 480 mm.
Click OK.

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We will now attach the copper material

properties to our cavity.

Click on to open the Materials dialog.

Under the Metal tab, select the material ‘Cu’
(copper) from the list of predefined materials.
In Entity list at the bottom of the window,
select ‘cavity’ and then click on the Attach
material button. This operation attaches the
copper material definition to the cavity.
Close this window.

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Next, we need to define some sort of

electromagnetic field excitation for our model.
In this example we will use the initial field
excitation, which defines electromagnetic field
conditions at the start of the simulation.

Click on to open the Excitations dialog. At

the bottom of the window, click on Create…
and select Initial field. The Initial field dialog
opens.
We will define the excitation region to cover
the whole of the internal cavity. In the Initial
field dialog set Minimum to (0, 0, 0) and
Maximum to (20, 10, 16).
We will excite the y-polarized field. To do so
set the initial electric field magnitude to (0, 1,
0).
Hit OK in the Initial field dialog and then close
the Excitations window.

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We will now define the type of output we would

like to obtain in this simulation.
First, we will request Ey field component output
at a point in the centre of the cavity. Note that
this is a broadband output – both the time and
frequency domain results (within the defined
frequency range) will be available.

Click on to open the Outputs dialog. The

Points page will be displayed by default.
In the Edit set area, set Position to (10, 5, 8).
Check Ey for Electric field component.
In the Comment box type ‘inside cavity’.
Click on Insert to add this output definition to
the output point list.

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We would also like to define a space domain

region for the output at selected frequencies.
These frequencies are normally obtained by
running an initial analysis and recording
“interesting” frequencies from the broadband
results at a point. In this tutorial, we will cheat
and set the three interesting frequencies for
the space domain output upfront.
Click on the Regions (frequency) tab of the
Outputs window.
Enter 12 GHz in the Frequencies area and click
on the Insert button to add it to the list.
Repeat the same steps to insert 24.3 GHz and
29 GHz into the list of frequencies.
In the Fields area, tick Electric field and
Magnetic field to obtain field values at these
frequencies.
In the Currents area tick Surface and wire
current to obtain surface current results at
these frequencies.
Close the Outputs window.

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The geometrical and electromagnetic definition

of the model is now completed.
We will proceed with the discretization of the
model using a default mesh.

Click on to open the Discretize model

dialog.
Click the Go button.
Wait until the discretization is completed and
click on Close.
The discretization process automatically saves
the model.
Select File>Exit to close the Build tool.

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The next step is to analyze the model and

display the results in the main MicroStripes
window.
The Projects tree displays the list of currently
opened projects and models, and will show
what type of results (targets) can be analyzed
and displayed for each model.
In this example, we can see our ‘Getting Started’
project, containing a single model called ‘cavity’.
Expand the tree under ‘cavity’ and double-click
on the Frequency Domain target.
The required analysis tools will be started.
After the completion of the analysis, the
broadband frequency domain results at our
output point will be displayed.
In the graph plot, you can see the resonant
frequencies of the cavity. Move your mouse
over the peaks to confirm that the cavity is
resonating around the frequencies selected for
the space domain output.
You can place frequency markers on the graph
by clicking on it with the mouse. By default the
marker is placed at the nearest maximum or
minimum of the plotted quantity.
You can also double-click on Time domain
target in the Project tree and observe how the
time-domain signal has been excited and how
it resonates inside the low loss cavity.

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We will now look at the field patterns at the

output frequencies that we requested.
In the Projects tree, expand the Space Domain
target and double click on Frequency 24.3 GHz
to check the results at this frequency. The
surface currents in the cavity will be displayed.

Click on to turn on the smooth shading.

With the icon selected to the right of the

field plot, try rotating the plot by dragging the
mouse cursor around the plot.

Click on to turn on the axis display.

Click on to toggle the background to white.

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Click on the Plot Options icon to change the

view settings for the field plot.
On the Surface Field page, change the Color
map to ‘Grey Scale’.
Click on the Space Field tab.
In the Planes/Positions area tick ‘Y’ to obtain
the y-plane plot of the electric field and move
the adjacent slide bar to about half way
through the range.
In the Colors section change Scale to ‘Linear’.
In the Glyphs section change Type to ‘Cones’.

Click on in the toolbar to turn off the axis

display.
You are now looking at the resonant behavior
of the electric field in this cavity at 24.3GHz.

Try clicking on to animate the phase. To

stop the animation click on the Stop icon .
You can repeat this procedure for any other
space domain frequencies specified.
Finally, select File>Exit to exit MicroStripes.
The project will automatically be saved on exit.
This concludes the first tutorial.
The subsequent tutorials will show you how to
find scattering parameters, as well as
introducing some of the more advanced
features of MicroStripes.

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